Senate introduces stand alone renewable energy standard bill

09/23/2010

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Washington, D.C., September 23, 2010 — Following the failure of previous energy legislation in Congress, a bipartisan group of six Senators introduced a bill to establish a federal renewable energy standard.

The proposed legislation would install a renewable portfolio standard (or renewable electricity standard, in D.C. parlance) requiring states to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021.

Electricity retailers that sell fewer than 4 million MWh are exempted from the bill's standard. Qualifying generation technologies under the bill are wind, solar, ocean, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, waste-to-energy, hydrokinetic and new hydropower at existing dams.

There are currently 36 states in the Union that already have some form of renewable portfolio standard, alternative energy portfolio standard or renewable energy goal, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

These “patchwork” state-level standards vary widely in their target dates, generation targets and technologies that count toward the goal.

Efforts by Democrats to push forward the Senate’s major climate change bill, which included a cap-and-trade mechanism to lower carbon dioxide emissions, stalled in mid-July after the bill failed to attract Republican support.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced more modest legislation without a federal RPS or cap and trade in the Senate in late July. However this bill also failed to attract the bipartisan support needed to move it forward.

President Barack Obama, who set his goal as a candidate on a federal RPS of 25 percent by 2025, has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide directly if no legislative fix is possible. In response, the EPA has issued rules requiring power plants to obtain permits for their carbon dioxide emissions.